


The Awakening

by DiamondbackMako16



Category: Coco (2017)
Genre: After Movie, Ghosts, Medium - Freeform, Miguel - Freeform, Miguel sees dead people, sneak peak for bigger story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2019-01-29 02:04:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12620700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DiamondbackMako16/pseuds/DiamondbackMako16
Summary: The Land of the Dead has left an interesting side effect on Miguel.A two-shot story for an upcoming fic i'm working on. Consider this a bit of a sneak peek for that bigger story.Small Spoiler in the story!: Don't read if you haven't seen the movie or read the novelizations!





	1. Strange Occurances

He wasn’t exactly sure when it started, but that it started happening sometime after his little, unintentional trip to the Land of the Dead.

Thinking back on the events from then to now, any encounter he could think of could have been his first.

It could have been that time he saw the woman tending to her fruit stand at the side of the street, a man stood behind her, a forlorn expression etched on his face as he spoke to her back. The woman however, seemed completely oblivious to the man’s presence, and continued with her work.

‘They probably had a fight.’ Miguel had reasoned, ‘She’s giving him the silent treatment.’

Or maybe it was during the talent show he had attended with his family several months ago, in which during one of the performances, he noticed a middle aged woman sitting at the edge of the stage, smiling with pride as a young girl twirled her folklorico skirt.

_Miguel nudged his cousin, Rosa, and pointed out the seemingly bold spectator._

_“Can you believe that lady? She’s sitting right on the stage!” He inquired, leaning close to her ear._

_Rosa followed where his finger pointed and furrowed her brow, “What lady?”_

_“The lady right-“Miguel cut off as he turned back to where the woman was, only to see that she was no longer there. “Huh…I guess someone told her to get off.”_

_“Probably so.” Rosa agreed and the two continued to watch the show without further incidents._

That could have been the first episode, or perhaps it was the time he saw Dante playing with the young child on one of the deserted streets…

_The boy couldn’t have been older than six, maybe seven, and shouldn’t have been out on the streets, unsupervised._

_But he was, and as a young, thirteen-year-old teenager, Miguel felt that it was his duty as an older ‘child’ to look after this boy’s well-being._

_“Oye chamaco!” He called out, practically smirking at the slang his great-great grandfather used to use when addressing him._

_This caught the child’s attention, and the boy turned to Miguel, eyes widening when he realized that Miguel was looking right at him. He began to back away, looking like he was about to make a run for it. Dante on the other hand, simply sat next to the boy, tongue handing out and tail thumping against the floor, completely unfazed of the child’s sudden unease._

_Miguel however, picked up on the boy’s discomfort and he put up his hands to show he meant no harm, “Sorry if I scared you,” he started, “but I was wondering if someone was out here with you. It’s not safe for a little kid to be wondering alone.”_

_The child said nothing, and instead bolted down the street and around a corner._

_“No wait!” Miguel called out, chasing after him, Dante following close on his heels. He rounded the same corner the kid had just seconds earlier and stopped dead in his tracks._

_The boy was nowhere to be found…_

_The street was empty, and any shop in the area was already closed and locked up, so there was no way the kid could have ran into one of the buildings. Even if the stores were open, he would have heard the sound of a door opening and closing, but he didn’t…_

_So where was he? ‘_

_I was right behind him…how could he have disappeared so fast?’ Miguel pondered as he looked down at Dante._

_“You saw him too…right?” He asked the Xolo. Dante merrily gave a content bark and another wag of his tail._

_Confused and a tad bit uneased, Miguel turned and made his way home, all the while casting glances around in hope of seeing the mysterious boy._

Safe to say, his efforts were and vain, and has yet to see the child again. 

It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later that Miguel finally realized that something was amiss, not with the other apparently oblivious bystanders on the street, but with _him_.

_Miguel stared, completely dumbfounded at the scene before him._

_Was no one else really seeing this?!_

_Apparently not as people continued to casually walk past the statue, not even fazed by the fact that a young girl was currently sitting on top of the statue, lazily swinging one of her legs as she watched the villagers go about their business._

_It wasn’t until she turned her head in Miguel’s direction that she perked up and gave a cheerful wave, all the while grinning from ear to ear._

_Miguel didn’t return the gesture, and instead glanced around, hoping that he wasn’t the only one seeing what he was seeing._

_The action took only two, maybe three seconds at the most, and when he turned back to the girl, his jaw dropped._

_The girl was gone!_

_But how?!_

_He looked away only for a few seconds! That was too short a time for her to safely climb down, and the statue was much too high to jump down…at least without getting hurt!_

_Miguel’s head swiveled around and he could have sworn his heart dropped to his stomach when he caught sight of the girl…at the other end of the block he was standing on!_

_She was poking her head around the corner of the building she was hiding behind, her eyes narrowed mischievously._

_Miguel gulped and took a step back. He didn’t know what was going on, and it scared him._

_The girl noticed his action and put a hand up her mouth and mimed an exaggerated giggle before pulled her head around the corner and disappearing from Miguel’s sight. Miguel didn’t bother following her. He learned his lesson last time with the boy, and didn’t want to risk embarrassing himself on a crowded street._

_Instead, he settled for calling it a day and headed home, preferring to be in the security of his family rather than vulnerable out here in the streets._

After the girl on the statue incident, things seemed to bounce back and forth between normal and…not so normal.

There were times where nothing out of the ordinary would happen, and then out of the blue someone does something that no one ever notices, and then miraculously disappears in a crowd or around a corner or tree or whatever, leaving Miguel gaping in their wake.

For the most part, these people don’t acknowledge him, and if they do, it’s usually a surprised reaction before vanishing somewhere.

Only once did one ever speak to him.

_“Well…you are a young one, aren’t you?” The man had said after crossing paths with Miguel. “You’re obviously not the youngest, but still young either way.” He added as an afterthought._

_Miguel frowned in confusion, “Young one? I don’t…” He trailed off. What was this man talking about?_

_The stranger frowned, “You don’t know what you are? Pobre niño…” And with that, the man walked away, not even bothering to explain what he meant._

_Miguel tried to follow him, dodging around people, trying to catch up to the stranger._

_The stranger moved behind a building and this time, Miguel was able to follow shortly after, sighing with relief when he saw that the man hadn’t disappeared like all the others he had seen._

_“Señor wait!” Miguel called out._

_The man stopped, but did not turn to face the young boy._

_Miguel hesitated, but only for a second, “What did you mean, ‘what I am’?”_

_The man remained silent, and Miguel opened his mouth to repeat himself, when he suddenly stopped._

_The sun was setting, and with the slowly creeping darkness, Miguel was stunned to see that the man had a light glow eminating from him and…was that translucency he was seeing?_

_“W-what…?” There was no way this was happening!_

_The man slowly turned to Miguel, his expression unreadable, and simply stared at the flabbergasted teenager. Then, right before Miguel’s very eyes, he disappeared into thin air._


	2. Keep it Secret

Miguel paced the short length of his room, his hair a mess from the constant grabbing and tugging he would periodically do. 

Dante followed him around the room, thinking his owner was playing some sort of game, going as far as to playfully leap at the flustered boy. For the most part, Miguel would push the canine off him with an agitated, "Not now Dante!" Before continuing  his pace. 

Normally Miguel wouldn't treat his best friend so harshly, and deep down, he did feel bad for expressing his agitation on Dante, but he couldn't help it. Right now he was trying to come to terms on what he had just witnessed. He was in  _no mood_  to play right now. 

'How was that even possible?!' Miguel thought frantically, running his hands through his hair for the umpteenth time, messing it up further. 'Was that really a ghost? But how? Didn't the deceased go straight to the Land of the Dead? and weren't they only able to cross on Día De Los Muertos? And why wasn't that man a skeleton? Or the other's I saw...were they ghosts too? Why did they look like normal people? Why am I even able to see them? I'm not dead! None of the makes any sense!'

A knock from the door caught the boy's attention and Miguel turned just as Rosa poked her head in through the opening. 

"Hey..." She greeted tenderly. 

"...Hey..." Miguel returned, doing his best to fix his tussled hair. 

The cousins stared at each other in awkward silence. "Did you need something?" Miguel ventured, shifting on his feet. 

Rosa bit her bottom lip and slipped into Miguel's room, gently shutting the door behind her. "Not really, no..." She answered, "It's just...are you feeling...okay?" She questioned, raising a brow in concern. 

Miguel blinked, eyes wide. 

Oh God...had he really been that obvious? 

"I...yeah I'm okay...why do you ask?" 

Rosa gave him an unsure look, "Well...you've been acting sort of ..skittish lately." 

"Skittish?" 

"Yeah, like something scared you or something." The older female gave Miguel and expectant look. 

Thinking fast, Miguel shook his head, "N-no. It's nothing. I'm just thinking about a school project. That's all." There was no way he was going to confide in his family that he was probably seeing ghosts. The first time had been hard enough, and even with solid evidence, there was still the hint of skepticism as they listened to his story. 

Rosa gave her cousin a look, arms crossed, "A project?" 

"Mm-hmm." Miguel nodded, but even he sounded unsure. 

"A project?" Rosa repeated stepping closer, trying to pull the truth from the younger boy. 

Miguel lifted his chin defiantly, "It's stressful!" He defended. 

"Well then maybe I can help. What's the subject?" Rosa challenged with a smirk. 

"We're not supposed to get help from friends or family!" The response was way too fast and desperate. Miguel flinched. 

Rosa stared at her cousin for a moment. The look was so intense Miguel couldn't help but swallow the lump that was forming in his throat. 

"Fine." She said at last, "You don't want to tell me what's really going on, that's fine. I'll just leave you alone then." She turned and marched towards the door. 

Miguel felt the strangest combination of triumph, guilt and relief as he watched his cousin leave. A slow grin started to form, only to drop when Rosa paused at the door. She slowly turned back to her cousin, her brows furrowed in concern. 

"Seriously Miguel...if there's anything that's bothering you, I'm willing to listen. I promise things aren't like last time." She watched him, waiting for a response. 

Miguel forced what he hoped to be a reassuring smile, "I'm fine Rosa...honest." He looked down and fiddled with his fingers, "But if anything does come up...you'll be the first to know." 

The way Rosa's face lit up made the blatant lie all the more painful. 

"Alright then. Buenas noches Miguel." Rosa gave a final smile and left the room, shutting the door softly behind her.

Miguel groaned as he dropped down onto his bead, running his hands over his face. 

"Well that went well." 

Miguel bolted up at the sudden voice by the open window. Whipping his head around, he saw another ghost, or whatever it was he was seeing, standing at the opening. 

The specter's arms were resting on the window seal, a smirk plastered on his glowing, translucent face. 

Miguel, tired and fed up with recent events, simply grabbed his pillow and chucked it at the ghostly being. 

Of course, being a solid object, the material merely went through the phantom and landed on the ground with a soft thud. 

The ghost laughed the attack off before fading from sight. 

Miguel huffed as he trudged out of his room. No doubt his parents would ask how his pillow made it's way outside his window. 

He could say he threw it at a stray cat in an attempt to scare it away. That cold work. 

He just wondered how long it would take for him to run out of excuses to cover for his odd behavior. 

**Author's Note:**

> I know in the Coco universe, the deceased end up in the Land of the Dead and reside there as skeletons, but for the sake of this story, i'm going to have ghosts look like their normal living selves...at least until they reach their closure and are ready to move on to the Land of the Dead and achieve their skeletal, ghostly figures...if that makes any sense. 
> 
> Basically, the ghosts that Miguel is seeing, are in a type of purgatory that are awaiting the final afterlife destination (the mentioned Land of the Dead). 
> 
> Also: Italics =Flashback  
> Normal font=Current events  
> " "= Quotation  
> ' '= Thoughts
> 
> Note: This takes place several months after the movie's epilogue, so Miguel is 13 going on 14 years old. 
> 
> Story wise: Please let me know if y'all spot any spelling/grammatical or language boo-boos that I may have missed and I can make the corrections. I typed this out at work, and in my rush to finish, I may have missed some errors. :/


End file.
